This book arose out of a challenge. The challenge was made by Bob Geldof to the British academic and historian Michelle Brown. Pop singers raise huge sums of money for Band Aid and touch the hearts of people from all walks of life. But to give money can be an easy way out. How does the so called intellientsia respond with their minds(not just their hearts and pockets) to the appalling disparities in the conditions of members of the human race. This a challenge that a number of notable and gifted people have responded to enthusiastically. They range from John Simpson and Martin Bell to Former President Mary Robinson and the noted US feminist intellectual Charlotte Bunch. Other noted authors include Sir David Ramsbothom, Ricardo Navarro, Founder of the Friends of the Earth and Simon Counsell, Director of The Rainforest Foundation. Ultimately the purpose of this book is to make people think and connect wires, to encourage them to question their own place within the world , to acknowledge personal and collective responsibility and to discuss a range of situations and issues that have been changed by individuals. The book is also published to coimcide with Britian's Presidenct of the G8 and EU and ther associated drive to focus on issues of global social justice through the newly established Commission for Africa.

Did you ever hear that quiet but insistent voice deep inside yourself that starts to murmur, often in reposnse to something outside, and just won't go away....That's what's ultimately responsible for this book, said Michelle.'
'(T)his book challenges, encourages, and inspires us.'

Michelle Brown is Curator of Medieval manuscripts at the British Library and a Lay Canon of St Paul's Cathedral. Richard J. Kelly is Professor of Anglo Saxon Studies at the University of Kobe in Japan.